Currently, Ethernet (e.g., IEEE Specifications 802.3, 802.1Q, etc.) applicability to alternative, higher performance, fabric technologies like Infiniband, Fibre Channel, and/or proprietary technologies, etc. is limited. For example, the current Ethernet versions do not have a mechanism to recover from packet loss due to link errors; rather, upper layer transport protocols provide reliability or retransmission services. In another example, while 802.1Q provides user-priority fields for prioritizing high priority traffic, currently there is no mechanism to prevent higher priority packets from waiting until low priority packets have completed transmission. In addition, conventional Ethernet protocols do not provide an effective mechanism to avoid deadlocks, other than dropping packets, which may not meet operational requirements of lossless environments. In addition, conventional Ethernet protocols have a fixed, relatively large packet (frame) structure that may be inefficient for higher speed applications. In addition, current Ethernet protocols use Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for forwarding at the Layer 2 level, and typical implementations use additional upper layer headers including Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for flow forwarding which may increase latency and reduce forwarding efficiency. In addition, conventional Ethernet does not have mechanisms to ensure header integrity.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.